TGS 2005: Gears of War

Cliffy B from Epic made an appearance at Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show pre-show press conference and gave us another glimpse of Epic's next-gen title Gears of War. He showed off a level which focused on the theme of "destroyed beauty," and both sides were well represented in the demo. It was basically the same level we saw at E3, but it was a little more polished looking than the already impressive demo we saw four months ago. The start of the level showed troopers Marcus and Dominique pushing a burning car down a slope. The flame effects really look fantastic at this point, and although the armor on the character models is shiny and rather candy-like, it looks gritty and gnarled at the same time.

The next scene showed the two running to a holdout gas station to take cover. They soon came under attack, and Marcus was caught in the middle of a heated gun battle. Once again Cliff explained the "stop and pop" gameplay that emphasizes the use of cover and its ultimate destruction. The action was intense, and Marcus had to keep ducking behind cover to keep from getting wasted, only popping his head up to take brief shots at the enemies, then back down to safety. Although Cliff wasn't actually controlling the scene himself, it was explained that the footage was all real-time, which we can confirm after playing the same level at E3. After another battle in the open area outside of the gas station, the demo ended with a message that read "Emergence Day 2006."

We can honestly say that Gears of War has emerged as one of the best looking Xbox 360 games so far, and that the trailers you've seen are the real deal. The framerate still needs a bit of work, but the game is absolutely beautiful at this point, and is one of the prime examples of what we can expect out of the next-generation of games.